


night shift

by LadyAniko



Series: Zutara December Drabbles 2020 [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Flirting, Fluff, Humor, Implied Sexual Content, Light-Hearted, Meet-Cute, Mentions of Jetara, Modern Era, Or more like a series of meet cutes?, Sexual References, Sexual Themes, Zutara Drabble December 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:41:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27915433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAniko/pseuds/LadyAniko
Summary: Of course he had to be her age. Of course he had to be cute, with shaggy black hair and a chiseled jaw. His name tag read ‘Hello! I’m Zuko', and Katara didn’t miss Zuko the cashier's little eyebrow raise before he started painstakingly scanning each individual condom.Or: Katara's ritual encounters with the cute cashier always seem to happen when she's buying weird things.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Zutara December Drabbles 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2037787
Comments: 18
Kudos: 278
Collections: ZK Drabble December 2020





	night shift

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Zutara December Drabbles, Day 6. Prompt: Are You Lonely?
> 
> I really tried to stay under 1k...whoops.

How Katara could prowl through aisles and aisles in the supermarket and _still_ not find the boxes of condoms was beyond her.

Were they actually out? How could they be out of condoms?

It was nearing midnight. Wasn’t that, like, when most people came to get emergency condoms? Shouldn’t they _know_ to stock up for this sort of thing? She knew she should have gone to the drugstore. But the supermarket had been closer, and she and Jet had _very responsibly_ stopped right in the middle of something that had been ramping up to be _an incredibly good time_ to go out and buy some condoms. Honestly, they deserved a whole-ass medal or something.

So when it became unfortunately apparent that neither of them had any, they’d rushed to the nearest place possible.

Maybe if he actually would have come out of the car and helped her this would have gone quicker.

Scowling, Katara grabbed cherry-flavored lubricant and stalked to the checkout.

Once there she was relieved to see that there were at least some single-packaged condoms sitting in a box among the candy and the gum and the random assortment of cheap little items and snacks that stores sneakily put there as you wait so people think, 'Oh, what the hell, just one Snickers' just before they make a craving-based impulse buy. So Katara took a box and just dumped the entire thing on the conveyor belt, creating a cumbersome and rather gigantic pile of condoms.

When she looked up to meet the eyes of the cashier, her heart skipped a beat.

 _Of course_ he had to be her age. _Of course_ he had to be cute, with shaggy black hair and a chiseled jaw.

His name tag read ‘Hello! I’m Zuko', and Katara didn’t miss Zuko the cashier’s little eyebrow raise before he started painstakingly scanning each individual condom.

“Don’t judge me,” Katara told him.

He spared her half a glance before rolling his eyes. “I’m happy for you, really. But there are boxes in aisle three, just so you know. Would just have made my job a hell of a lot easier.” He pointedly holds up a single condom and scans it before moving on to the next one; or more like the next fifty. Katara fought the urge to cringe. Okay, she may have gone a little overboard. But then she felt a flicker of irritation.

“Actually, you’re out,” Katara said primly. “I looked all over in aisle three. And about ten other aisles.”

“We’re not out. Maybe you just have bad supermarket searching skills.”

Katara just stared at him indignantly, bristling more than she probably should be. He glanced up again, and one side of his mouth quivered at the sight of her expression of mild outrage, clearly enjoying himself. “But don’t worry,” he continued. “Next time I can just arrange to have a truck full of condoms waiting out back for you. Would that be enough? I could maybe even throw in some discounted whipped cream for such diligent customer loyalty.”

Katara huffed and folded her arms, mostly to hide the fact that she’d almost laughed. “Wow.”

She paid, resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at his amused look, and left.

* * *

After that it felt like she ran into Zuko the cashier every time she was checking out.

He developed a little game that she pretended not to like. It consisted of naming a mood or personality state based on what she was buying, they’d proceed to banter for a few minutes—Katara aggressively did _not_ think of it as flirting—and then she’d leave.

Tonight when he spotted what she was buying his eyebrows shot up to his hairline and then he grinned. “Ah...alcoholic mother?”

“Ugh. Don’t,” Katara said, rolling her eyes but not quite able to fight a smile.

“There are other checkout lanes open, you know,” he teased. “If you don’t want me to ask about...you know, that.” He pointed at the breast pump and the XXL bottle of cinnamon vodka and gave her a significant look.

“My sister-in-law is nursing,” said Katara. “I’m at her place helping her with her baby, she’s leaving to go on a weekend trip tomorrow, and realized she lost her pump. She's still very hormonal and started crying because she wasn't about to get, and I quote, 'a break from all the screaming and the diapers', so I came to buy her a pump and her much-needed weekend freedom. The vodka, obviously, is for me, because it’s becoming increasingly apparent the baby isn’t going to let me get any sleep tonight.”

Zuko laughed.

Damn it—he also had a nice laugh. Maybe she really should start going to another check-out aisle. Not that she and Jet were too serious, but they _had_ agreed to be exclusive a few months back, so…as hot as cashier Zuko was, he was very much off limits.

“ID?” he prompted, and she pulled it out and showed it to him.

He leaned forward to squint at it and she got a whiff of the cologne he wore. It was delightful. She should have known. Fuck, this was just entirely unfair. “Katara,” he read out, and a pleased little shiver ran up her spine at the slow, deliberate way he read her name; and then another when he smiled at her.

* * *

The next time she went to the store late at night and saw Zuko was one week later, and he blinked and stared at the contents on the belt for a long moment before speaking. He glanced up, mouth open and a teasing grin on his face, but then he closed his mouth abruptly once he got a good look at her. She knew that her eyes were rimmed with red—a sad _fucking_ love song had come on the _stupid_ radio on the way here, and she’d broken down sobbing sitting at a stop sign until someone behind her had sounded a long, rude honk.

“Uhhh…” Zuko said, awkwardly. His eyes ranged over the frozen dinners, mountains of sweets, ice cream, and three rom-coms.

“Why yes,” Katara snapped, “Before you ask, you’re right, Zuko. These are the groceries of a sad, lonely woman who has just been dumped and isn’t planning on leaving her place for a week.” Her eyes flicked over her groceries again and she sighed, slumping over the counter. “If I had cat litter this would pretty much finish out depressed bingo, wouldn’t it?”

Zuko gave her a small, sympathetic smile. “I’m really sorry.”

“Says the guy judging my life based on my groceries.”

“My groceries are probably more depressing than yours,” he offered. “And definitely more consistently depressing.”

“Oh? So are you lonely too then?”

“Night shift doesn’t do much for my social life,” he said, shrugging.

It was quiet a moment as he checked out her items and she paid. When she looked up at him he had a hesitant look on his face. But then he spoke as he handed her the receipt, looking right into her eyes. The expression on his face nearly made her heart stop right in her chest. “If it helps,” he said softly, “I think whoever dumped you is a massive idiot.”

There was a long moment where they stared at each other and where Katara felt as though the room had shot up several degrees in temperature. “You know,” she said finally, smiling shyly, “Maybe we could be depressing together sometimes.”

Zuko started to smile. “Yeah?”

She took one of her purchased candy bars and scribbled her number on the wrapper, feeling almost giddy. “Text me? If you want.”

Zuko stared down at it as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing and Katara smiled, took her bags, and turned to go. “Yeah,” Zuko called after her finally, clearing his throat. “Definitely, I’ll definitely, uh—do that. Yeah. Right.”

Katara’s stomach butterflies increased. She’d known he was cute when he teased, but somehow he was even cuter when he was flustered.

* * *

There was a text message on her phone the next morning. The time stamp was just after four in the morning.

 _Katara_ , it said, _Is it too eager for_ _me to ask to see you_ _today?_


End file.
